The importance of Malachi's prophecy

The prophecy of Malachi deals with the people brought back from the
captivity of Babylon, and is most important as shewing the moral
condition of the people consequent upon their return. Its last verses
evidently close the testimony of Jehovah to the people, till the
coming of him who should prepare the way of Jehovah, in a word, till
John the Baptist. The law and the prophets were until John, and
Malachi is professedly, and from the nature of his testimony, the
last. The great moral principle unfolded in the book, is the
insensibility of the people to that which Jehovah was for them, and to
their own iniquity with respect to Jehovah -- their want of reverence
for God, their despisal of Jehovah.

The people's insensibility to, and want of reverence for, God

Alas! this insensibility had reached such a point that, when the
very actions that proved their contempt were laid before their
consciences, they saw no harm in them. Nevertheless this did not alter
the purposes and counsels of God, although it brought judgment on
those who were guilty of it (see chap. 1: 2, 6; 2: 14; 3: 7, 13).

The remnant: God's call to them

Malachi also distinguishes the remnant and that which characterised
them, while proclaiming the punishment of the wicked, and the call of
God to those who had ears to hear to bring them back to repentance --
a ministry which would restore moral order in the hearts of parents
and children -- that relationship, from the maintenance and exercise
of which, all earthly peaceful order according to God flows; and that
order is what God is considering here.

Jehovah's love proved by Israel's election: His purposes

At the commencement of the prophecy Jehovah sets forth His love to
Israel, slighted alas! by an ungrateful people, yet proved by their
election from the beginning. Even while exhibiting the sad ingratitude
of the people, Jehovah adheres to His own thoughts toward them. He
will bless Israel, and He will judge Edom, in spite of the pride of
the latter.

Israel's indifference and sin; mercy towards the Gentiles; the
sins of the priests

The sin of Israel, and their offensive indifference in the service
of their God, is shewn (v. 6-10). This gives occasion to another
expression of grace -- the revelation of the name of Jehovah among all
nations. Thus, the election of Israel, and mercy towards the Gentiles,
are established amidst, and even on occasion of, the sin of the
restored people. Verses 12-14 also display their offences against
Jehovah and their contempt of His majesty. Chapter 2: 1-9 proclaims
the fallen condition of the priests, who ought to have been the
faithful depositaries of the mind and ways of God; verses 10-12, their
misconduct towards their brethren, and their intimate relationship
with idolaters, are pointed out; verses 13-16, the lightness with
which they were in the habit of divorcing at their pleasure. But
Jehovah was coming.

John the Baptist anounced

Here again we find the Lord's [1] first coming connected with the
full result of the second. John the Baptist is announced as His
messenger to prepare the way before Him; and then, the Angel of the
covenant, whom they so earnestly desired, should come; but it would be
in judgment, to purge the people and take away all their dross. Then
should their offering in Jerusalem be acceptable to Jehovah, an
offering in righteousness. But all the evil-doers should be judged;
for God was unchangeable, both in righteousness and grace. It was this
which, after all, secured the existence of Israel, happen what might.
Let Israel then return unto Jehovah, and Jehovah would return unto
them. But the pride of Israel is excited by this, and they say,
"Wherein shall we return?" Their sins with respect to the
offerings and the ordinances are then shewn. But grace again displays
itself in prospect of the people's return from their practical
alienation from God. They had but to return and prove the goodness of
God.

The remnant known to Jehovah; the rising of the Sun of
Righteousness

In the midst of the pride of the wicked in their apparent success,
the remnant are distinguished as being drawn together by their common
spiritual wants and feelings, founded on the fear of Jehovah which
governed them all. In their affliction they spake often one to another
of these things; [2]

and Jehovah hearkened and heard and wrote it down in His book. And
they shall be His in the day when He maketh up His jewels. After this
they should discern between the righteous and the wicked, between
those that served God and those that served Him not. For the day was
coming which should burn as an oven, and the proud and the wicked
should be as stubble. But to those that feared the name of Jehovah,
the Sun of Righteousness should rise. It should be no longer the
sorrowful night of darkness and affliction and of the enemy's
dominion, but a day which God would cause to shine by the presence of
His Son, by the reign of His Beloved One on the earth. The righteous
would have dominion over them in the morning, for the time is a time
of judgment, and the wicked would be as ashes under the soles of their
feet.

Jehovah's authority and Israel's national conduct after the
captivity

It will be remarked here, that all is in connection with the
authority of Jehovah and His dispensations towards Israel, and with
the conduct of Israel, as a nation, towards their God. That which
belongs to the first coming of Christ, and its consequences to Israel,
is not brought in here. John the Baptist is presented as the
forerunner of Jehovah, who without doubt is Christ Himself, but who
here comes as the Angel of the covenant, coming suddenly to His
temple, and trying everything in Israel by fire and by His judgment,
in order that the offering of Judah may be pleasant to Jehovah as in
the days of old. The transgressions here spoken of are those of the
people brought back from Babylon against Jehovah. The Gentiles, and
their empire, are not seen here. All takes place between Israel only
and Jehovah, the God of their fathers, as in former days between the
people loved of God and Jehovah who loved them. A strange god is that
which Jehovah will not endure. It is Levi, with whom His covenant had
been; it was the priests, whose lips should have kept the true
knowledge of Jehovah.

There is even no king here spoken of; except that Jehovah, whose
name is terrible among the heathen, is their king. Finally the people
(Israel) are commanded to return to the law of Moses given at Horeb
for all Israel.

Jehovah's unchangeable love; Israel awaiting God's judgment

Thus we have here Jehovah's unchangeable love for the people whom
He gathered to Himself at Horeb, His controversy with them on account
of their sins, the marking out of a faithful remnant, and the sending
of a messenger before the execution of the judgment. Israel is looked
at nationally, in their own relationship with Jehovah, as returned
from captivity and awaiting the judgment of their God, who sends His
messenger to forewarn them.

All was prepared to put the people morally to the proof, with
respect to the accomplishment of this, at the time when John the
Baptist was sent; but Israel had not ears to hear, and all was lost.

The perfect and entire fulfilment will take place at the end, after
that other glorious work of God with regard to the assembly shall have
been accomplished.

The rejected message sent to Israel after the Saviour's death

The longsuffering of God towards Israel had been great; for, when
they had rejected His Son, He sent them -- through the intercession of
that same well-beloved Saviour on the cross -- the message by the
mouth of Peter, that, if they repented, the Christ whom they had slain
would return. But their leaders were more than deaf to this grace on
the part of God, and their house still remains empty and desolate.

Elias and John the Baptist

At the time of the end, Elias -- whose mission was to call back an
apostate Israel who had forsaken Jehovah to own Him in truth, and
that, by the sovereign grace of God, although in connection with the
law, and that Mount Horeb, whither he went to lay down the burden of
his prophetic office, when rendered useless by the unbelief of the
people -- Elias shall effectually accomplish his mission before the
great and terrible day of Jehovah; in order that the curse of God may
not fall upon the land of His delight in that day when He will
definitively execute His judgments. It is on this account that John
the Baptist is spoken of as being Elias, if Israel could receive it;
for he answered to verse 1 of chapter 3, whilst, at the same time, he
said he was not Elias; for in fact he did not at all fulfil verses 5,
6 of chapter 4 (compare Luke 1: 17, 76).

The object of the prophecy: its future application

The prophecy speaks to the conscience of those who lived at the
time it was delivered (chap. 3: 10); and passes on -- shewing that at
the end of those times Israel would be put on trial by the mission of
grace -- to the last days, in which God would display His unchangeable
love for His people, and His righteous judgment against evil, by
separating a remnant unto Himself for blessing, and by executing
judgment on the rebellious.

The Gentiles are not mentioned, nor even the connection of His
people with Christ, coming down as man to the earth.

The subject of Haggai's prophecy

We have thus in these three post-captivity prophets, three distinct
subjects, but which make a whole of the three. In Haggai it is grace
toward the returned remnant, God's Spirit still among them, and in
connection with the house and worship of Jehovah, the temple. Its
latter glory should be greater than its former. The kingdoms of the
heathen should be cast down, and Zerubbabel (Christ) as a signet on
Jehovah's hand. Peace would be given in Jerusalem.

Zechariah's prophecy summarized

Zechariah takes up two points: first the empires of the heathen and
God's providential ways with Israel -- the times of the Gentiles --
Jerusalem is owned, but judged of God and stamped as Babylonish in its
true character; but at the end the Branch, the Lord Jesus, sets crowns
instead of fasting for the faithful -- Babylon being already judged --
and strangers should come and build in the temple of the Lord.

From chapter 7 to the end, it is the relation of Israel with
Christ, and His rejection and its consequences in the last judgment of
Jerusalem; but for all that Jehovah, as we have often seen, would
judge definitively all the nations assembled against her. The remnant
would be brought to repentance, and Jerusalem be holiness to the Lord,
nor should strangers defile it.

Malachi's testimony to the Jews' moral state: the coming of the
Lord in judgment and deliverance

Finally we have Malachi shewing us, the state the Jews soon got
into, slighting all that was agreeable to God, and indifferent and
insensible to their violating every righteous feeling; the practical
separation of those that feared the Lord, and the coming of the Lord
in judgment and deliverance: meanwhile their recall to the authority
of the law, and the coming of Elias before the great and terrible day
of the Lord, to turn their hearts in grace into the way of peace.

[1] It is, note distinctly, Jehovah's.

[2] See the lovely picture of this in the first two chapters of Luke's
Gospel, before he begins the general subject of it. Only then the
Saviour was rejected, and the remnant passed into the assembly, the
deliverance of Israel being deferred to the coming of the Lord in
power. Here it is looked at as the remnant in Israel connected with
that deliverance.